The NBA and MLB took steps this week to prove they can police gambling corruption in their leagues following two damaging sports betting scandals.

Given their track record, sports fans and legislators remain skeptical.

The NBA is “barreling” toward changing the way teams report injuries, The Athletic reported Monday, as the league expands its investigation into a fraudulent sports betting ring exposed last month.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York indicted Miami Heat point-guard Terry Rozier and former NBA player Damon Jones on October 23 for using confidential information about injuries to make illegal sports bets.

Though not named in that indictment, Oregon Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups is thought to be “Co-Conspirator 8,” who allegedly disclosed the Blazers would throw a game against the Chicago Bulls. A subsequent indictment accuses Billups and Jones of using their fame to lure wealthy people to poker games rigged by the mafia.

“The federal indictment in which Billups is a defendant suggests ties between certain NBA players and coaches and organized crime,” Senators Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell observed in an October 28 letter to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver.

Cruz and Cantwell serve as chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, which oversees professional sports.

“Needless to say,” the senators continued, “these connections are disturbing and suggest that gambling-related corruption threatens to infect professional sports.”

The MLB capped bets on individual pitches at $200 last week after the Eastern District of New York indicted Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis L. Ortiz for rigging pitches.

DID YOU KNOW?

A parlay is one bet made up of at least two smaller bets, or legs. To win a parlay, a gambler must win all the legs. An example of a two-leg parlay might be: “Emmanuel Clase will pitch three balls in the first inning” and “The Cleveland Guardians will hit two home runs in this game.”

The odds of winning a parlay are lower than a single proposition bet, but the payout is usually higher. If a gambler has inside information, placing fraudulent parlay bets is the easiest way to maximize profit.

The new rules, which also prevent wagers on pitches from being rolled into parlay bets, make it more difficult for gamblers to win big on the kinds of “micro-bets” Clase and Ortiz manipulated.

The NBA and MLB hope policy changes discouraging fraudulent sports betting will convince legislators and sports fans the leagues can reliably root out gambling corruption while maintaining partnerships with sportsbooks.

FanDuel and DraftKings, the two largest online sports betting companies in the country, are official partners of the NBA and MLB. The sportsbooks further sponsor several basketball and baseball teams.

The leagues past gambling investigations don’t engender confidence. Last year, the NBA and MLB busted players for fraudulent sports betting. In both cases, the investigations failed to pick up on larger, more serious offenses.

MLB banned infielder Tucupita Marcano in June 2024 for placing more than three hundred bets on professional baseball over several months. The investigation revealed Marcano bet on the Pittsburgh Pirates while on the Pirates’ roster, though he was not playing at the time.

In a November 14 letter to MLB Commissioner Robert D. Manfred, Senators Cruz and Cantwell wrote:

While the Pirates claimed there was ‘no evidence of any games being compromised, influenced or manipulated’ by Marcano, the evidence of game manipulation [in the case of Clase and Ortiz] is clear. Which raises the question: How did MLB catch Marcano and ban him for life but failed to notice Clase allegedly rigging pitches for two years?”

The NBA banned Toronto Raptors’ player Jontay Porter in April 2024 after finding he left certain games early to profit from bets placed on his underperformance. The league reportedly initiated an investigation into Rozier around the same time — but found no evidence of wrongdoing.

“This Committee needs to understand the specifics of the NBA’s investigation [into Rozier] and why he was cleared to continued playing basketball,” the senators wrote in their October letter to NBA Commissioner Silver, continuing:

This is a matter of Congressional concern. The integrity of NBA games must be trustworthy and free from the influence of organized crime or gambling-related activity. Sports betting scandals like this one may lead the American public to assume that all sports are corrupt.

In their November letter to MLB Commissioner Manfred, Cruz and Cantwell reflect on the implications of both leagues facing back-to-back sports betting scandals:

An isolated incident of game rigging might be dismissed as an aberration, but the emergence of manipulation across multiple leagues suggests a deeper, systemic vulnerability.

The systemic vulnerability is this: The NBA and MLB make money from partnerships with sports betting companies.

The leagues want to show legislators like Cruz and Cantwell they can root out gambling corruption with their own policy changes, because neither want Congress to forbid them from taking money from the gambling industry.

But the NBA and MLB’s problem cannot be solved with policy. They must cut financial ties with the gambling industry to prevent further corruption. Anything less remains a conflict of interest.

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